GRAHAM Cunliffe has put the finishing touches to his preparation for the London to Brighton Ultra Distance Race with a fine third place in the Great Langdale Marathon.

Rated as the toughest Marathon in Britain, even above the Snowdonia event, the Clayton Harrier returned his best ever time of 3:02:26 to finish less than three minutes behind winner Les Hill, from Dumfries.

Having placed third in the three previous races, always with race number three, he asked the organiser for number one this year, but the change failed to alter his fortunes.

For the first of the two laps the top three finishers ran together, but when Bury's Pete Bates began to push it was decision time for Cunliffe.

Having been training all year for London-Brighton which is coming up on October 5, he decided not to go with the pace.

However, he must be very confident of his form after beating Hill last month in the 35.3 mile Two Bridges Road Race in Scotland, which was won by Darwen Royal Marine Brian Cole.

That day the 47-year-old Cunliffe was seventh in 4 hours 4 minutes having passed the marathon mark in 3:04 and 30 miles in 3:30. Over the last 5.3 miles he was able to maintain 6:30 per mile pace and finished in good shape.

Cunliffe says he is "a lazy trainer" having seldom averaged more than 45 miles a week over his 20 year career, and at the moment he runs under 40 miles.

Still he has enjoyed a successful season with victory in the 31 mile Wuthering Hike at Haworth in March with running partner Roger Brewster possibly the highlight.

He attributes this season's durability to his regular 20mile runs and he is for hoping sub seven hours for the 54 miles from London to Brighton.

His one worry is that the race might not take place, apparently it has been under threat for years.

"They haven't cashed my cheque yet," he says anxiously.

Darwen Dashers husband and wife team Shane and Sheila Gudgeon were also at Langdale with Sheila clocking a creditable 4:26, but unfortunate Shane was forced to retire at 18 miles with a pulled hamstring.